Authors, Latin -- Biography; Cicero, Marcus Tullius; Statesmen -- Rome -- Biography
is guilty, and at the same time rich, can possibly be condemned in
Rome.[111]If the matter goes amiss here, all men will declare, not that
better men should be selected out of your order, which would be
impossible, but that another order of citizens must be named from which
to select the judges."[112] This short speech was made. The witnesses
were examined during nine days; then Hortensius, with hardly a struggle
at a reply, gave way, and Verres stood condemned by his own verdict.
When the trial was over, and Verres had consented to go into exile, and
to pay whatever fine was demanded, the "perpetua oratio" which Cicero
thought good to make on the matter was published to the world. It is
written as though it was to have been spoken, with counterfeit tricks of
oratory--with some tricks so well done in the first part of it as to
have made one think that, when these special words were prepared, he
must have intended to speak them. It has been agreed, however, that such
was not the case. It consists of a narration of the villainies of
Verres, and is divided into what have been called five different
speeches, to which the following appellations are given: De Prætura
Urbana, in which we are told what Verres did when he was city Prætor,
and very many things also which he did before he came to that office, De
Jurisdictione Siciliensi, in which is described his conduct as a Roman
magistrate on the island; De Re Frumentaria, setting forth the
abomination of his exactions in regard to the corn tax; De Signis,
detailing the robberies he perpetuated in regard to statues and other
ornaments; and De Suppliciis, giving an account of the murders he
committed and the tortures he inflicted. A question is sometimes mooted
in conversation whether or no the general happiness of the world has
been improved by increasing civilization When the reader finds from
these stories, as told by a leading Roman of the day, how men were
treated under the Roman oligarchy--not only Greek allies but Romans
also--I think he will be inclined to answer the question in favour of
civilization.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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